I suppose that the KH got the swingarm before the panhead, because it was supposed to be a sport bike to compete with British bikes which already had them , and because it was a new frame for that engine anyway.. the pan already had the established rigid frame

Shoot, a man could have a good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff...

true, I didn't realise the K model was introduced as early as 1952. I had thought it was a few years later, around the mid-50s when the British machines were all switching over.

BSA and Ariel would have had plungers at the time. Triumph would have had the 'wobble wheel', Matchless and AJS would have had the jam-pot swing-arm, Royal Enfield certainly had a swing-arm by then, the rest would have been rigid

Shoot, a man could have a good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff...

Yep, this "no trap door" business up to the mid 54 KH had me bugged for a long time... Sems they were so confident at the proto stage that they thought they did not need one...

It puzzles me even more when you realise early KR/KRTT did not have one either!!! Can you imagine the likes of Joe Leonard splitting their engines on the dirty rag thrown on the grass at a remote race cause they needed the C ratio rather than the D???

Touch wood, I never had any bother with the close C ratio box on my trapless 54 KHK for the last 22 years, but it beggars belief that it wasn't there at the start...

Some early K boxes did suffer failures... Looking back and reading old dealers accounts, you would think they all failed, but surely, this wasn't as dramatic, it could easily had ended up like the bloody singles and vertical OHV twins that REALLY put an end to Indian through warranty claims, now THAT was a bad design in all aspects, despite generous aesthetics!!!

45Brit wrote:I suppose that the KH got the swingarm before the panhead, because it was supposed to be a sport bike to compete with British bikes which already had them , and because it was a new frame for that engine anyway.. the pan already had the established rigid frame

Did ya ever pass something at a swap meet that you had kicked yourself in the ass for later? Years ago I looked at a British published motorcycle magazine. The editor had just come back from a visit to The MoCo. He had photos of different things they were prototyping. Shop job's in his terminology. There, big as life, was a photo of a prototype Panhead Duo Glide. This was in a 1948 magazine. Long before the K model was in development. Why did it take the MoCo another ten years to release the Duo Glide?

1978 I passed on a 1948 WR for $300 at the Wausau Wisconsin swapmeet. Not long after that I found a 1940 WL in the basement of a house and had to stumble out of the way of what I now believe to have been an aught year Indian that I could have had for almost nothing. I paid $700 for the WL and it was too much.

In '76 i sold my BSA Goldstar (clubman bars, alloy tank, rearsets & megaphone) for $1000, and bought a '74 Triumph Bonneville for $800. I had gotten tired of dealing with the Goldie's clutch. GP.S. That's a real pretty KHK

i have 2 or 3 complete seats like this , in my stock ....i know they are from OLD model sportster's but i don't exactly know what model ....the seats are new .somebody interressed ? ......... shoot me a PM !

45Brit wrote:I suppose that the KH got the swingarm before the panhead, because it was supposed to be a sport bike to compete with British bikes which already had them , and because it was a new frame for that engine anyway.. the pan already had the established rigid frame

I have seen photos of a 1948 H-D prototype Panhead with swing arm. Why did it take ten years to hit the streets?